The Toll
"The Toll" is the 11th episode of the fifth season, and the 63rd episode in the series overall. It was written by Benjamin Cavell and directed by Jon Avnet. It first aired on March 25, 2014. Plot Summary A shooting close to home forces Raylan and Boyd to decide which lines they're willing to cross. Recap Alone in the communal bathroom, Ava frantically tries to scrub away all evidence of her lethal encounter with Judith. She is joined by Penny who wordlessly accompanies her back to their dorm. The signal sounds for a prison lock-down after the body is discovered and as the inmates hit the floor face down, Penny silently signals Ava that she missed a spot of fresh blood. As Ava furtively wipes it off on the dark blanket rather than the white towel, Penny draws Corrections Officer Barbour's attentions with an irrelevant inquiry. At Audrey's late that evening, saying, "I want you to know my loyalty was always to you, Boyd," Johnny's girlfriend Teri collects a wad of cash from Boyd in payment for an unproductive tip. She continues to come on to Boyd in an obvious manner. He receives a call from Wynn Duffy, and agrees to a meeting with Harlan County's Dixie mafia honcho. Teri pushes her advances, but Boyd graciously begs off. Alison is putting together a suitcase of her necessities and chats with a vigilant Art as he explains his "abundance of caution" in providing protection for her in case the remaining Crowe delegation comes after her. He graciously co-credits Raylan for the Federal Marshals Service's concern for her well-being. As the two of them leave Alison's apartment, there's an ambush from an unseen assailant and a furious exchange of gunfire as Art simultaneously addresses the threat and covers his charge, moving her back into the apartment. When the shots finally stop, Art hands Alison his cell phone and says "I need you to call 9-1-1" as he continues to cover the doorway. He notices a sizable blood trail amid the debris on the carpet and notices she's covered with blood. As he starts to pull up her bloody T-shirt, he announces with alarm, "You're hit!" The terrified social worker gives herself a quick examination and says, "No, it's not me, it's you," and Art looks down and sees that he's been shot in the gut. This realization counteracts the adrenaline from the encounter and he slumps back against the wall, his eyes starting to lose focus. Raylan and Art's wife, Leslie Mullen, are in his car driving to the hospital, talking casually about Winona and his new daughter down in West Palm Beach. She's ruminating offhandedly about certain trials of new motherhood and transitions seamlessly into why Raylan wasn't with Art when he was ambushed. "Why weren't you there, Raylan?" Raylan is having difficulty with an answer. They arrive at the hospital and head directly to a heavily guarded (by Kentucky State Police) ICU where U.S. Deputy Marshals Rachel and Tim are waiting outside Art's room. He is within, unconscious with an oxygen mask and compression pants due to his loss of blood. Rachel introduces Leslie to the ICU's Dr. Jay Patel. In response to her obvious question, the doctor says that Art is still alive but in extremely critical condition. He takes Leslie to his office for greater privacy. The three deputy marshals confer in the hallway. Rachel takes the lead and tells Raylan that Art passed out in the ambulance without giving forth any information about who ambushed them, and Alison is "pretty shook up" and has nothing to add. Art "had her on the floor before she knew there was anything to see," Tim explains. They play out some possible scenarios, but Raylan is pretty steadfast on focusing on Daryl Crowe Jr. "It's not your call," Rachel tells him. Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Ed Kirkland is coming down from Detroit to "head up the investigation and run the office for the time being." Because of the Michigan connection, Rachel predicts that Kirkland will want to take a close look at Theo Tonin. After Rachel departs, Tim suggests that they have a limited amount of time before Kirkland arrives, and that they should "catch up with Daryl out in the wild world." Raylan's mildly surprised at Tim's suggestion. "You think that's what Art would want?" he asks? "I think he'd do it for us," a grim-faced Tim replies. Raylan shakes his head. "With all due respect, Tim, I don't think you know Art as well as I do." Boyd sits in his office, toying with the the cigarette pack he'd caged off Teri, when Carl and Jimmy walk in. Boyd explains that he has to meet with Wynn and Picker and explain to then how half the heroin shipment came to be lost. Carl says "We didn't lose it!" Boyd knows that will not be a productive tack to take whatever dope remains and instructs his men to "hide it somewhere that God can't even find it." It's Boyd's life insurance policy against an unfortunate outcome to the upcoming meeting. He elicits a promise from his two retainers to see that Ava gets whatever heroin she needs to have the nurse smuggle into the prison. He thanks them for their bellicose willingness to accompany him to the meeting, but declines their offer. "I appreciate the sentiment, but this one's on me." They leave as Boyd reminds Jimmy of his promise. The next morning Raylan comes into Marshals' HQ and finds an exhausted Alison on an office couch, wondering how long she's going to be inconvenienced. He then goes out to meet with Kirkland and they have a low-key pissing match as the acting chief deputy marshal sets himself up as an absolute authority, and his first order of business is focusing on the Tonins. Raylan wants to be on the outside tracking Art's assailant, but Kirkland wants him on the inside, "being my right-hand man." Raylan lets him know that he's aware that's code for "reining in the office problem child." Kirkland admits that that was just what he meant, and they butt heads a bit more when Assistant U.S. Attorney David Vasquez enters to announce "Theo gave it up" that he ordered the hit on Art, signed an affidavit to that effect, and is going to "finger the shooter." Boyd is being frisked by Mike as he enters the hotel room to meet with Wynn and Ethan Picker. The latter insists over Wynn's demurer that Mike perform a second search of Boyd's person. All he can find is a pack of cigarettes, which Boyd explains is "my abiding shame." He notices Katherine Hale on a couch, but no introductions are made. Boyd realizes that Picker is calling the shots during the meeting, and engages with him. When Picker wants to know what happened to "our half of the dope." Boyd answers that he doesn't know as he wasn't there, so they'll need to ask Daryl Crowe. Pressed, Boyd's succinct answer is "Shit happens." Wynn wants to know about the other half, and Boyd fires back, "Sometimes it don't." Picker presses some more when Katherine jumps in. When Boyd asks her name, he is very impressed to discover that she is the widow of "Big Country" Grady Hale. He pays her extravagant compliments, and tips his cap to Wynn for just knowing her. She tells him that Wynn brought her there especially to meet him, to see if she "can come up with a reason why he shouldn't kill you." Boyd pauses to have a cigarette, and as Picker explains that they are in a non-smoking room, the door is kicked in by a Federal Marshals' raiding party, six in all, led by Rachel and Tim. The room's inhabitants are forced to the floor at gunpoint, and Boyd, his face inches from the carpet, observes, "I guess this hotel takes that non-smoking policy pretty serious, Mr. Duffy." At a teeming Marshals HQ, Raylan and Vasquez are tossing around the possibility that "this is all bullshit," when Tim interrupts to inform him that Rachel wants the AUSA to look at the list of those who were picked up. When he sees Katherine Hale's name, he is all ears, and is surprised that Tim isn't, but then realizes that the Hale case was before Tim's time. They head down to the holding area as Raylan goes into an interrogation room to talk with Picker. Picker is glad to see Raylan, since he is really pissed at "that scrawny little rat-faced guy" (Tim) and wants an apology from him for how he's been treated. For his part, Raylan wants "a name" and tells the Detroit mobster that the "special relationship" Picker thinks they still enjoy, is over, and that Theo Tonin has fingered Picker as Art's shooter. Raylan lays out what Picker is facing, 40 years, or the death penalty if Art dies. Picker is incredulous, falling back on his previous cooperation with the Marshals' Service. Raylan acknowledges that, but presses harder until Picker reluctantly says "Daryl Crowe is what I heard." Kirkland enters; the two men know one another from Michigan, and the acting chief deputy marshal dismisses Picker as "a bent-nose arm-breaker from Greektown," but wants the mobster to help them get Daryl Crowe. Picker wants to know what's in it for him. "Prizes... to be named later," Kirkland chuckles. There is a rap on the interrogation room door, as Tim motions the two men outside to tell them that video surveillance footage puts Picker in a hotel lobby ten minutes away from Alison's apartment three minutes before Art was shot. At the same time Deputy U.S. Marshal Nelson Dunlop tells them that Wendy Crowe is on the phone saying that Daryl Crowe wants to turn himself in, but only to Raylan. Downstairs Rachel escorts Katherine into a meeting room with AUSA Vasquez. There are ironic smiles between the two. "Well, hello, David," she says, sitting down across from him. "Katherine..." he acknowledges. They get into their prior interactions from when her husband was on trial. She remembers Vasquez as a "smug little hobbit-looking beaner sh-tbird who told the judge what a no-account savage my late husband was... and that I was worse." Vasquez is getting a big kick out of her recollections, and Rachel is amused. The banter continues, and Katherine charmingly insists that whatever "dark twisted fantasies you have about me, David, rest assured that now I am nothing but a little ol country grandma." Vasquez says he just wanted to see her "for old times' sake." Rachel notes that most of the people in Marshals HQ are too new to know who she is. Katherine wants Vasquez to admit that he's disappointed that she's still alive. "Just a little but," he acknowledges with a broad grin. Raylan knocks on Wendy Crowe's hotel room door. She answers, her face is badly bruised and cut from her recent knock-down, punching and kicking brawl with her brother. Her drawing Raylan (and his substantial back-up) there was a ruse so that Daryl could come out of hiding without being shot by Raylan. The two surviving Crowe siblings apparently blame Raylan for Danny's death. Simultaneously, back at Marshals HQ, Daryl, his own face showing the marks of the fight with his sister, walks into the office with raised, empty hands. Kendal is with him. He announces loudly "My name is Daryl Crowe Jr. I'm here to turn myself in," as he sinks forward onto his knees to be cuffed by one of the deputy marshals. Later at Marshals HQ, Tim fills Raylan in on what's going on as Wendy and her son sit alone in a room behind them. Kirkland and Vasquez are interviewing Daryl, but because of his age no one is going to speak with Kendal without a lawyer present so as to not compromise his value as a possible witness. Kirkland and Vasquez exit the interview with troubled looks on their faces and motion the two Deputy Marshals to follow them into where Wendy and Kendal sit. "This can't be good," Tim murmurs. Wendy immediately launches into her paralegal rap about her brother's rights, but Vasquez silences her with a stern look and a sharp "Ms. Crowe!" He tells her that at the moment he's not interested in Daryl, and after she and Raylan clear up the actual Crowe family relationships, he tells Kendal that his brother, um, uncle, says that the lad has something he wants to tell them. Apparently Kendal has completely bought into the blood oath he sealed with Daryl following Danny's death. He looks around and starts in, "I didn't mean to hurt that old man... it just happened so fast." He receives surprised looks from everyone there, including his mother. It's ice cream day in the prison cafeteria as Ava and Penny quietly converse over lunch. It seems that the lockdown ended early because no evidence relating to Judith's death was turned up and no one is talking. Now their only concerns are how "Judith's girls" are going to retaliate. "Their asses may be dumb, but they ain't now dumbasses," Penny says. Everyone seems to know Ava, who is getting hard looks from one group, did it. But instead of revenge on Ava, Judith's crew quietly file past the table and leave Ava their ice cream cups. Penny's hope that others in that crew hated Judith as much as she did has been fulfilled. In a crowded conference room at Marshals HQ, Vasquez is taking Kendal's statement with his attorney Davis Wagner and a stenographer present. His well-thought-out story is simple and effective as he manages to slip in numerous references to his brother Danny's being killed "like a dog" at the hands of the marshals (as he looks right at Raylan), that he was worried about his meeting the same fate and he didn't want his mother left all alone in the world. Wendy is most affected, weeping noisily throughout. Kendal has a seamless explanation of the entire sequence of events... the lad has always been good on his feet, it's how he's survived among the Crowes this long. His final statement is that when he drove himself to Alison's and the door opened just as he was about to ring the bell, all he saw was the badge on a man's belt and thought it was "the same one as on the man who killed Danny, thought maybe it was the same man there for me, looking to bury me beside my uncle." Wendy leans over and hugs her son. Raylan seems dubious. Resuming their hotel room meeting which had been interrupted hours earlier by the marshals, Picker cites Boyd's nerve at coming back to them, and is met with a sharp rebuke from Wynn. Katherine reminds Boyd that he had been at the point where he was about to explain why he shouldn't be killed. Boyd lights up a cigarette as he makes his pitch to Wynn, offering the Dixie mafia man half of the half of the heroin which Boyd has salvaged. Wynn isn't pleased but Picker is furious and wants to send Boyd's head back to Mexico in a box. Wynn tries to silence the Michigan mobster and the volume of the disagreement escalates. Sensing imminent violence, Katherine moves away from the core of the group. Wynn composes himself and joins the woman. During this "cooling off" period, Boyd encourages Picker to have a cigarette and even though he declines, Boyd pinches a bottom corner of the pack... a barely audible click is is heard... and tosses it to him. Picker catches it and notes "Shit'll kill you!" Right on cue it does just that, exploding in Picker's face. In the confusion, smoke and red mist, Boyd knees Mike and relieves him of his pistol. Covering a choking and coughing Wynn and Katherine, Boyd tells that that the ringing in their ears is a result of "two ounces of Emulex® on a 10-second timer. Now I may not know a lot about a lot of things, but I do know how to blow shit up! Now, my offer still stands, Mr. Duffy. Half of my half." He leaves them to consider the situation and clean up Picker's remains. Mike struggles to his feet, and Katherine orders him to lock the hotel room door. All three are covered with Picker's blood spatter, and cuts from debris from the explosion. At Marshals HQ, Kirkland has summoned Rachel into his office and has her close the door behind her. He explains that since there's been a confession on Art's shooting, he's being sent back to Michigan, and asks her to "keep me in the loop about Art." She agrees and asks if he has any idea of who will be sent in to replace him. Per Marshals Service protocol, Art has made a recommendation as to a successor should he become incapacitated. Surprised that Rachel is unaware of Art's choice, Kirkland shows her a confidential communication from the service's director confirming her appointment to assume control of that office. She is stunned. In the interview room, Raylan uncuffs Daryl and escorts him to the elevators, working at provoking the man who pleads that he's grieving for one dead brother and another "on his way to juvie" — "Nephew," Raylan corrects him — and "a sister I got to keep from losing her damned mind." Daryl is offended by Raylan's attitude toward him, but Raylan keeps on, laying out his own scenario of how he thinks Daryl went to Alison's to use her to draw him "over to show it down." "You mean, like cowboys?" Daryl scoffs. Raylan continues, postulating with certainty that when Daryl saw the news that it was Art instead of Raylan, he panicked and somehow convinced Kendal to take the fall for it. There are more bitter words exchanged, but the deputy marshal tells the Florida criminal that he's not going to kill him. "Your luck. You shot the one man makes a difference to me," but says that he's going to bring Daryl down anyhow. "That web of bullshit you spun around yourself, to protect yourself, I'm gonna use it to strangle the life out of you, take away everything you got. Then you're gonna wish I'd blacked you out with a bullet to the head." Daryl makes a vague threat against Raylan and leaves. That night Raylan leaves Marshals HQ and heads to the hospital to check on Art and relieve deputy marshal Dunlop, sitting watch in the ICU waiting room. ''- Created by Dean Speir for IMDb'' Appearances First Appearances #Leslie Mullen - The wife of Chief Deputy Art Mullen who is brought to the hospital to visit her husband by Raylan Givens. She is portrayed by Leslie Riley, Nick Searcy's off-screen wife. Deaths #Ethan Picker - Killed when Boyd throws a packet of cigarettes containing Emulex® explosive, which detonates within seconds and kills him after he catches the packet. Production Cast Starring cast *Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens *Nick Searcy as Art Mullen *Jere Burns as Wynn Duffy *Joelle Carter as Ava Crowder *Jacob Pitts as Tim Gutterson *Erica Tazel as Rachel Brooks *and Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder Guest stars *Michael Rapaport as Daryl Crowe Jr. *Rick Gomez as David Vasquez *Shashawnee Hall as Ed Kirkland *John Kapelos as Ethan Picker *Jacob Lofland as Kendal Crowe *Jesse Luken as Jimmy Tolan *Danielle Panabaker as Penny Cole *Amy Smart as Alison Brander *Alicia Witt as Wendy Crowe *Leslie Riley as Leslie Mullen *Justin Welborn as Carl Lennon *and Mary Steenburgen as Katherine Hale Co-stars *Jocelyn Ayanna as Officer Barbour *Cathy Baron as Teri *Jonathan Kowalsky as Mike Cosmatopolis *Mel Fair as Nelson Dunlop Gallery S2.jpg External Links Category:Season 5 episodes